


The Wasteland Shepherd

by BearWritesThings (Halaani)



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fallout, Blood, Brief Mentions of Slavery-Canon Typical, Canon-Typical Violence, Competent Adam, Dogs, Mercenaries, Mostly Non-Verbal Character, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 20:56:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5430578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halaani/pseuds/BearWritesThings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam's lived in the Wastelands for his entire life. He's learned the hard way to always be ready, to always have his gun loaded and never take a stranger at his word. He's earned a few names in his time. Silent Adam, The Feral, The Wasteland Shepherd. He takes jobs few others would take, and no one who knows him is fool enough to fight him. Of course, because fate has a thing about leading him down strange paths, Adam finds himself living up to his names in strange and interesting ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wasteland Shepherd

**Author's Note:**

> First attempt at writing so let's hope this is a good way to get back into the swing of things.

Adam's lived in the Wastes for as long as he can remember. Some of the first memories he has of life are a ratty, tattered tent, howling winds and the smell of things burning. From the time he was old enough to walk his dad was teaching him to run, to climb, to hide, anything he would need to know how to survive. When he was ten, he got his first gun; a beat up, but still functional, hunting rifle his dad pulled off the body of a super mutant in the city.

And when he was eleven, just shy of turning twelve, he lost his parents to the raiders. He didn't remember much about that night, only the vague imprint of his parents shaking him awake violently from his bed, shoving his gun and a pack in his hands and being herded out the back door. They said they'd catch up, find him in the next settlement.

They never did.

For a time, he tried living in Silver Springs, the nearby sizeable settlement, but the pity from the adults and the gleeful bullying from the other children drove him away. By the time he was thirteen, he'd already been living solo in the Wastes for nearly six months. A wanderer named Mahiko, an older man, showed him the ropes, let him setup a small tent behind his caravan. He taught him to use different kinds of weapons, to medicate himself so he didn't die, to cook and hunt and repair. Adam stayed with Mahiko for two years, providing security for the caravan and the wanderer in exchange for food, medicine and a nominal amount of caps.

When Adam turned fifteen, he left Mahiko's caravan to set out on his own. He was in a good location, all things told, a few hundred miles from Rivet city. For the longest time he just drifted from town to town, selling what he gathered in his travels, or trading for things he needed like stimpaks and Radaway. He hated going to towns, the noises and lights and sounds just too much for him since he left Silver Springs. 

He never talked to anyone anyway, never went to the inns to indulge or to the gambling rings to try and double his caps. He never even talked to anyone the few times he went to the towns anymore. He could get what he wanted across just as easily with grunts and growls and the occasional monosyllabic answer, and many of the traders appreciated his no nonsense attitude and economy of words despite his young age. Over time he simply just stopped talking. There was no one out there in the Wastes to talk to, and that's where he spent most of his time, so what was the point?

For years he stayed out in the Wastes, picking up odd jobs or just hunting around. He became a staple in towns like Megaton and Rivet City and even more so in smaller settlements. Silent Adam, The Feral, The Wasteland Shepherd. They called him a lot of things but Adam didn't care. Most people were nice enough to him, and the shops and traders and doctors he favored with his business learned to communicate with him regardless.

And then he found Rooster Teeth. A small settlement to the far north, Adam found them by complete accident. He'd been ambushed by a pack of ghouls and gone through all of his medical supplies in the resulting fight. By the time he'd managed to fell them all, he was bleeding in more places than he'd ever been before and his clothes were in tatters. He'd long ago come to peace with the fact that he was going to die, alone in the Wastes, and he was pretty amazed he'd made it to twenty-five.

He staggered to a rocky outcropping, found a little hollow, a curled up like a dog waiting to die. For a while he drifted in and out, each time darkness creeping further and further into his vision, more and more feeling leaving his body. And then there were voices, and he was being moved, a ragged scream escaping him as his wounds were moved. The voice was gentle and apologetic and the last thing he'd heard before darkness won out at last.

When he'd come to he was in a soft bed in a dark room, and he was almost certain he was dead. He groaned quietly and sat up, looking around him. It was a plain enough room, rough gray wood made up the walls and floor and the bed was a stripped metal cot, one he was used to seeing by now from his time on the Wastes. "Hey! You're awake!" Adam looked over at the familiar voice, his eyes wide when a tall man with ginger hair and a beard appeared in the door, dressed in threadbare scrubs and a clean looking lab coat.

This was the voice he'd heard before he'd passed out! "You're looking much better. How do you feel?" Adam looked down at himself and took stock of the light soreness that remained, of the bandages that wrapped around his arms and the ones he could feel wrapped around his chest and his throat, the IV drip of...something the last thing he noticed. All in all he felt well enough and he gave a soft, affirmative growl, sounding pleased with it.

The man apparently needed no translation because he beamed and settled himself in the chair next to Adam's bed. He reached for a clipboard and a pencil and handed it to Adam, who looked down and sighed. It was a basic hand written form and he filled it out in his shaky, unpracticed hand. All it really asked for was his name and his age, which he filled out easily enough, and on the bottom in the blank area below it he jotted down a quick question. "What happened?" He handed it back to the man.

The man looked it over before a look of surprise came across his face. "Oh I'm sorry, Adam! I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Jack Patillo, and I'm the doctor here at Rooster Teeth, a small settlement north of the Capital Wastelands. A few settlers were out scavenging last night when they found you and came to get me. We brought you here and patched you up the best we could, but it's gonna be a few weeks before I'd be happy to send you back out." Adam gave a soft, annoyed grunt but nodded. He'd long ago learned never to argue with a settlement doctor. They were much more forceful than the town doctors.

Jack talked to him for a while and then left him to rest, and that's how Adam spent his first week in Rooster Teeth. Afterwards Jack declared him fit enough to help around the settlement with light tasks, and people found stuff for him to do in exchange for his medical care. He liked the settlers and they liked him. He stayed in the spare room above Coe and Salcedo Inn and Tavern in exchange for helping with well repairs. 

He stayed in Rooster Teeth a month before Jack declared him healthy enough to go, and Adam was tickled pink when Mayor Burnie offered him a home in the settlement. Adam choked and stuttered his way through a polite explanation that he wasn't ready to settle anywhere yet, and the others had nodded their understanding to him and made sure he knew he always had a room to stay in if he found his way back to them.

He set out at a leisurely pace, not willing to ruin Jack's hard work putting him back together again and set out down to the Capital Wastelands, intent on hooking on to one of the caravans and making for New Vegas. Rumor had it that there was a dealer out there who could outfit Adam to the teeth for the foreseeable future, as well as allow him to get his hands on some of the materials he couldn't get out in the eastern Wastelands. 

The trip took two and a half years, from the time he left Rooster Teeth to the time he stopped outside of Megaton, two Brahmin pulling a large cart, a large flop eared dog at his heel. He'd gotten the brahmin for a steal, seeing as they were single-headed "mutants" and the cart for saving a farmer's herd from super mutants. The dog, Tallula he lovingly called her, was a reward from the mayor of a small settlement outside of New Vegas, a thank you for several long nights perched on a rooftop with a sniper rifle, picking off raiders. She was a big dog, with short tan fur and big green eyes and he loved her dearly, his only companion on his long journey.

He stayed only long enough to trade a few things to replenish his severely depleted medicine and food stocks before he was off again. He managed to travel only a day before he stopped, the silent Wastes carrying the sound of terrified screaming his way easily. He snapped around and grunted out a command for Tallula to guard the cart before setting off at a sprint.

The attack wasn't far away, he could still see the cart from the outcropping he perched on, but was more pressing was the sight before him. A man, tall and pale and wearing a torn flannel shirt, was being savaged by a large dog creature. Adam raised his gun and stilled his breathing, taking aim in a way that he hoped would avoid the man being attacked. He let off six quick shots, watching to make sure the beast fell to the ground first before he slid down the rocks. He jabbed the beast with his rifle twice and then placed a round in its skull for good measure, kicking the massive corpse away. Its pelt was mangled and rent with holes, so it would be no good, and it stank of radiation, so he wasn't even going to bother with the meat.

Instead he turned on the man lying in the dirt, crouching down to appear less intimidating. "Calm." He huffed out, voice just barely audible over the scratch of underuse and sand and radiation. The man look at him with wide green eyes behind thick glasses and Adam set his rifle down, creeping forward from his crouch. "Safe." He growled, and the man nodded his head. "Help." He pointed at himself and then the man, reaching into his side pouch for a stimpak. 

He waited until the man nodded and turned away to use the stimpak on him. He rose to his full height and strapped his rifle on his back and then leant down. The man was able to help a little and Adam maneuvered him so one arm was flung across Adam's shoulders and Adam's arm was braced around his waist. "Slow." He instructed and then began the tedious process of picking his way over the rocks until they were back at the cart.

He moved a few things around and lay down one of the thinner blankets he had in the back and then hefted the man onto the lip of the cart. He quietly worked on wrapping up the man's wounds and gave him another stimpak to kick start his healing. He had just closed up the back of the cart and latched it when the man spoke up. "I'm uh- I'm Lawrence. Doctor Sontagg. Thank you for helping me." He gruffed out and Adam stopped for a minute. What was a doctor doing out in the Wastes unprotected? 

Shaking his head, it was none of his business after all, he instead pointed to himself and growled out his name before padding away to the front of the cart. He knew just where to put the man.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the time they reached Rooster Teeth, and after a few meals of the terrifying fanged roosters that gave the settlement its name, Lawrence was sitting up under his own power. He'd tried to strike up a conversation with Adam, but since he didn't speak more than a single word at a time and Lawrence had yet to learn the difference between Adam's grunts, growls and snarls, it had been an unsuccessful attempt. Instead Adam had lead the cart unfailingly over the desolate landscape, his pipboy playing music, the only sound in the whole area.

When they pulled up to the town, a tall man with a beard and curly hair, one Adam vaguely recognized as Miles, saw them and raised the call that they had a visitor, the other guards standing down the second they recognized Adam's face underneath the wide brim of his Stetson. He honestly didn't think they'd recognize him after so long but sure enough the Burnie and Jack and Geoff, the man who ran the general store, met him in the town center, all of them grinning when he came to a stop before him.

What followed was something Lawrence hadn't seen ever. All three of the men ringed around his savior and were talking animatedly eyes and, in the case of the large bearded man hands, checking him over for wounds and sickness. Adam simply grunted and growled and once made a sound like a whine before he simply grabbed the bearded man's scrubs and tugged him around to the back of the cart with an impatient sounding snarl, pointing to Lawrence's seated form. "Help." He gruffed out and the man nodded his head. The last thing Lawrence saw as the large man, Jack, led him to the clinic, was Adam pointing over things in the back of the cart, the merchant standing beside him, their arms gesturing widely as they haggled over prices.

Adam stayed two months in Rooster Teeth. He traded a portion of his stash for a chunk of land within the protected gates and sold one of the Brahmin for some basic building stuff and, with the help of Jeremy and Matt- two locals who specialized in construction- they made him a little hut and a pen for the left over brahmin. It wasn't fancy by any means, but it was warm and had a cot and Adam could store his loot there between trips. Lawrence healed up and stayed in the clinic to give Jack a hand, being medically trained himself, and Jack was grateful for the other man as their settlement continued to grow. 

At last, Adam headed out again and his life took on an interesting new trend. He kept finding people as he went out. Not every time, and never close to his new base camp itself, but sure enough over the next three years he kept certainly earned his name "The Wasteland Shepherd."

He met Sean, or Spoole as he preferred to be called, and Matt shortly after settling down at Rooster Teeth. His plan had been to strike out over the Capital Wastelands and hook up with one of the caravans heading towards Point Lookout. Instead he'd been woken in the middle of the night by the sound of metal scraping against stone and the scent of fire and smoke, He clambered out of his hollow, gun in hand and Stetson perched on his head already, black bandana wrapped around his face to protect him from the smoke. Not a few hundred yards down the valley from him billowed a great black pillar of smoke, and Adam sprinted towards it when the sounds of people screaming reached him. 

It was a vault, and dozens were streaming out of it, coughing violently and soot stained. Adam did his best to corral them safely up the valley towards his hollow, but some refused to listen, heading back into the vault for left possessions and others went screaming into the night. In the end Adam found himself with just over two dozen cold, exhausted and frightened vault dwellers. Adam had been forced to use a charred stick from his fire to write out the plan for the impromptu leader on the ground but in the end it was decided that they would follow Adam back up the valley to Megaton and then go from there.

Adam would miss hooking up with the caravan, a loss of almost six hundred caps, but it wouldn't be the end and Adam could always recoup the losses another way. It was an aggravating five day journey, if only because they were very obviously vault dwellers who'd never set foot in the wastelands. They complained constantly about everything from sore feet to the way the water tasted after Adam purified it. Adam merely favored them with growls and grunts and angry snarls.

All except for two. Both on the shorter side for full grown men, but deceptively built. Spoole and Matt, they introduced themselves and had no trouble keeping up with Adam, loping ahead of the rest of the members of their vault. They weren't discouraged by his non-verbal answers, including him in conversations as much as they could, and they voiced no complaints like the rest did. Adam thought they'd be capable in the wastes, given enough time and a proper mentor.

When the day came that Adam stopped in front of Megaton, he was only slightly surmised when they didn't follow the rest of their vault inside. He'd seen the looks they'd been getting from the others, especially when he noticed for the first time that they would hold hands as they traveled or that they never failed to sleep curled into each other. Out in the wastes no one cared who you slept with, there were far more pressing things to worry about than what you got up to in your own time, but he'd heard stories of homophobia taught and bred rampantly in the vaults.

They'd looked at him with imploring eyes and he'd folded like a house of cards, nodding and growling an affirmative to their unasked question. He'd brought them into Megaton just long enough to outfit them with a pistol and some stimpaks and a few other basics and then he led them away at a brisk pace. He taught them what he could of Mahiko's teachings, but he couldn't teach them a whole lot because, within two weeks they were trotting into Rooster Teeth. Burnie teased him about bringing them more lost lambs and Adam rolled his eyes good-naturedly, assured that the two would be well looked after.

Five months after that, coming back from a winter spent with the Brotherhood of Steel, Adam met Joel and Bruce. He met Joel first, the man dressed in clothes that looked far out of place in the wastes. He flagged Adam down and said he was willing to pay him handsomely for an escort to Rooster Teeth, of all the places, and he'd pay six hundred up front and six hundred when they got there. Unable to turn down such a large amount of caps, and heading that way anyway, Adam agreed, and Joel joined him on his journey back home. And that's what Rooster Teeth was to him now, even if he didn't spend very long there at a time or even very often. Rooster Teeth, the settlers and his little hut was everything he looked forward to returning to each time he struck out on the wastes again.

They traveled at an easy pace for a week before they came up on Bruce, the big man cut and starved looking with a set of handcuffs hanging off of one wrist and looking frightened and hunted. The second he lay eyes on Adam he bolted and Adam shot off after him, unsure even in that moment if he was going to pin the man down or help him. When he caught up to him- it wasn't hard considering Adam was well fed and uninjured- he instead wrapped his broad arms around the man, trapping his arms against his side. The man struggled and screamed, sounding desperate to get away, and Adam mustered his voice the best he could. "Safe!" He shouted and god did it hurt to get that loud but at least the man stopped his struggles, going limp in Adam's arms and heaving for breath.

"Safe." He said again, softer this time, voice shot just from the one shout and the man nodded. Adam set him down and stepped back, tense like he was unsure if he should spring at the other man again. The man turned towards him and muttered a quiet apology, his arms wrapping around himself defensively. Adam decided to camp for the night, and Bruce allowed Adam to check him over and to remove the handcuff the hung uselessly from his arms. Bruce was thankful for the medicine and food and water and timidly asked if he knew somewhere where he could stay. Adam grunted and pointed to himself. "Town."

"Your town?" Bruce asked and Adam nodded. Joel filled Bruce in, about their destination and how their bear of a guardian didn't talk much if at all and how they were in good hands. Tallula slept with Bruce that night, curled around the man's thin trembling form like a blanket and Adam smiled in pride. His dog was such a good girl. In the morning Bruce got the biggest share of brahmin steak and hard tack, since it looked like the man hadn't eaten well in months, and Adam made sure Tallula got a whole can of cram just for her.

Their pace slowed some more with the addition of Bruce, the man's injuries and Adam's lack of proper medical supplies meant Bruce was healing at the normal rate. Not that Adam minded. Bruce slowly, slowly getting used to him and Joel, and one night, a few days outside of Megaton and on the way to Rooster Teeth, Bruce told them what had happened to him. A prisoner of slavers for years, Bruce had been sold to raiders, for what he did not know. He'd waited for the first opportunity his new owners provided, slipped his restraints and fled them. He'd thought Adam was a mercenary sent to fetch him back, which is why he'd fought so hard against him.

Adam had grunted his understanding. He'd always hated slavers, had plenty of encounters in his time exploring the wastes. They were the absolute scum of the earth and he hated them. A week later they stopped at the gates of Rooster Teeth and Adam brought them in, aware that this late at night no one but the guards knew they'd arrived. Bruce, he took straight to the clinic to get his wounds treated and the radiation out of his system while Joel, he left at the Tavern. He himself headed for his hut and simply shed his gear and fell into his bed, content.

He met Elyse and James right after he'd left Rivet City in the dead of summer, a quick mission for Geoff to trade some supplies for seeds for the settlement's medium sized farms. They were sitting at the Inn, sharing between them a large bottle of water and some stew when Adam tromped in, setting himself at the bar and pointing to what he wanted to the innkeeper, who nodded and took Adam's caps. He'd used this inn plenty before so they were used to his communication. A few of the regulars who recognized him struck up conversation with Adam, odd things that seemed one-sided but were anything but. And then they were there, next to him and Adam bristled a little, expecting trouble. No one ever approached him that he didn't know. Apparently he was intimidating.

It was harmless enough in the end, the two of them merely interested in securing a new place to live, their previous settlement having burned down recently, and the innkeeper had said the best place to settle would be Rooster Teeth, to the north but that the only reliable guide wouldn't be around for an unknown amount of time, considering how sporadic Adam's travel was. They offered him seven hundred caps to take them and their dog, Benson, to Rooster Teeth and promised they would only be a help and not a hindrance on the way, having lived on the wastes for a combined twelve years.

Adam agreed in the end, after all it would be nice to have experienced traveling companions and the caps would be a nice touch to his stash. They stayed the night in Rivet City, Adam on the floor of the couple's room to save time and caps and set off in the morning. It was nice, Adam decided, to travel with people who knew what they were doing. Their pace was fast, a swift jog that ate up ground in no time. Elyse was no-nonsense but had a wicked sense of humor and James was a joker but competent in what they were doing and more than once he found himself laughing softly as they went. Tallula took joy in her owner's mood and she danced ahead of them as they went, barking and jumping in place, tail wagging a mile a minute as she and Benson played.

They made Rooster Teeth in record time, just under two weeks from the day they left Rivet City, the sun had just reached its highest point in the sky when they jogged through the gate. Adam greeted everyone with nods and soft grunts, headed for Burnie's place. The couple loitered behind him while he waited on the porch. Burnie showed up a few minutes later, opening the door with a smile. "Adam!" He greeted warmly and Adam let himself be pulled into a hug before Burnie rocked back and looked behind him. "And friends? Are you from South Valley by any chance?"

Elyse nodded while James waited behind her, surprisingly quiet. Burnie's face creased with sympathy and he led them all towards the tavern, where Tyler brought them out a fresh soup he'd just made and Mariel poured them out glasses of Nuka-cola. Burnie sat and talked with Elyse and James for a while before Adam rose to his feet and stretched. He shook hands with the couple, scratched Benson between the ears and whistled for Tallula to join him. He was going to drop Geoff's supplies, get Jack to flush the radiation from his system since it had been almost six months since the last time he'd had it done, and then he was going to go to his hut, make sure the boy he'd hired had been taking care of the place, and then he was going to sleep for a week.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

James looked around the small home they'd been set up in, taking stock. It was nice enough, with a larger bed and a few working appliances. It was well made and weather tight and they'd have to work for the settlement a while to pay it off but it was worth it to have a new home. The settlers were nice, the place was a far distance from any of the radiation sinks and, besides the fanged roosters the bred fast and made up a lot of the meat they lived off of there was almost no beasts to contend with. "He needs a hug." James turned to look over at where his wife was sitting at the table, Benson laying at her feet.

"What?" He was only slightly confused, in all honesty. He knew she was talking about their guide, Adam. Burnie had been skeptical when they'd asked about him at first, but he could see that they were just genuinely interested, and he told them a few tidbits of information. They only really knew that Adam had lived in the wastes for over a decade, his voice was soft and graveled from very little use, radiation and sand, and he was a kind and hardworking man that the settlement was protective of despite his intimidating appearance.

"Adam. He looks like he needs a hug. Or a lot of them." James snorted.

"He looks like he'd punch you or run away if you tried to hug him. You heard what those guys called him. The Fer-" He screamed and ducked as a boot came hurling at him and turned wide blue eyes on her as she sat at the table with arms crossed and a disapproving look in her eyes.

"James Willems you stop right there! He is a very nice man who took us all the way across the wastes and those old bastards have no right to call him feral. He's lovely!" She huffed and James' eyes softened. Elyse had always had a big heart and Adam had endeared himself to her. He wandered over to the table and settled himself in the other chair, toeing off his own boots as he went.

"You like him don't you? You think he's cute." Elyse flipped him the bird before she rose to her feet and disappeared behind the changing screen, likely to change out of her work clothes. James grinned. It was all the answer he needed, really. "I will admit, he is pretty cute. Did you see his face when Benson came to sleep with him and Tallula that first night?" He wheedled, a smile settling gently on his face as he remembered that night as well. He'd turned huge brown eyes on the smaller dog, confusion and shock written on his face before he gently settled himself down and buried one gloved hand in Benson's fur, drifting the bed with a quiet rumble that James would put caps on was a purr.

For all they they'd only spent two weeks with the other man on their own, it had been plenty of time to pick up on a few of his tics and nuances and even learn to communicate with ease. Adam slept and woke like clockwork, setting camp two hours before sunset, usually in a cove or hollow or some other protected area, and by the time the sun was fully below the horizon they'd already eaten, drank and relaxed. Adam was up first while gray still tinged the sky, and by the time light had crept over the wastelands properly they were ready to move out. To him, Tallula was as good as any human companion, and he was an unfailing shot with his rifle, though he carried a few other weapons at the same time.

Growls usually meant yes, snarls meant no, and grunts could mean anything from "got it" to "you win". Whines were pain and fear or surprise and soft rumbles were contentment or joy. His laugh was soft and it sounded almost like a quiet cough and he tended to curl in on himself and he never spoke more than a single word at a time, and never long ones. The longest word they'd heard him say was "Lawrence", the name of one of the settlement's doctors. 

Elyse came around, dressed in soft pants and a soft shirt, one of the few things she'd rescued from their burning house beforehand, and leaned down to kiss his forehead. James grinned a little and angled himself to catch her lips before he rose to his own feet, intent on dressing down and sleeping for the night. They hadn't gotten to the heart of the matter, and he cursed both of them lightly for their quick-to-love hearts, but for now, there wasn't anything they could do about it but talk, because Adam was back on his way to Rivet City to hook up with a caravan heading south.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Adam groaned as he trudged painfully to the gates of the settlement, hating every second of his movement. He looked up at a shout of his name and was endlessly relieved to see Lawrence and Bruce standing there, Jack and Geoff right behind them. He let himself crumple into Bruce's arms and the man- now well muscled after a year of being well-fed and good work- still staggered under the combined weight of Adam and his pack. Lawrence's broad hands were on him and then Jack's while Bruce and Geoff tried to maneuver him into a better position to be seen in the dying light of day. 

"Adam what happened?" Jack's voice was gentle, a bastion of calm in the turmoil as the settlement was roused to his appearance. Adam focused on the other man as Lawrence made the others push back to give them space and quiet filled the night air as he struggled to articulate what had happened.

"Slavers." Horrified silence followed and Adam let his eyes close a little, leaning into the small, soft hand that cradled his face. Two sets of strong hands helped him get to his feet again and supported him as they headed to the clinic. Once there Adam let himself be dressed down to his boxers, aware of the horrified gasps as his injuries were revealed. They'd cornered him against a canyon wall, the one time he'd left Tallula back at the settlement, with their jagged spears and heated whips. They'd laid into him, hoping pain would subdue him and they'd have a brand new slave for the pit. Adam had burned through his ammo and his hardly ever touched stash of Psycho and had taken down the last few with the weapons of their fallen brothers. They'd sent almost three dozen slavers just for him, whether it was because he was known for his skills of for saving Bruce, he didn't know and he didn't care to ask.

He'd been down to two stimpaks at that point, only a few days out from the settlement again and he used them both and the few bandages he had so he didn't bleed to death but beyond that he'd known he was going to need to get back to Rooster Teeth for proper help. Now, he let himself be moved and cleaned and patched up, but Jack was afraid to use too many stimpaks on him with Psycho still in his system and nothing to flush it out until the caravan came back in a week. Instead they stitched him up, bandaged him and gave him a drip of pain medicine, Radaway, saline and antibiotics- Adam still had no clue where they got them from but he knew better than to question Jack and Lawrence- and lay him to sleep in one of the beds.

They all took turns watching over him, medical staff or otherwise, and for a while it seemed like Adam was going to be fine. And then the withdrawals started. His body wanted the Psycho but it wasn't getting it and there was nothing to get rid of taint in his body. He shivered and cried and kicked, tearing open a few of the whip marks before James couldn't take it anymore. He and Elyse had seen a few of their old settler friends come off various substances after long periods in the wastes and they knew the easiest way to take some of the pain out of it was simply physical contact and comfort, which would also help with the coldness that had seeped into his limbs and no amount of blankets could chase away.

They talked it over with Jack and Lawrence and at this point the men were willing to trying anything to ease the suffering of the other man and they opened the door so the couple could slip in. Matt, who was sitting with him and had heard the whole conversation stood up and gave them a hopeful look before he too, stepped out of the room.

Elyse crouched down on the side of the bed and Adam cracked open his eyes to look at her. They'd laid him on his side to keep the worst of the wounds away from the bed and James carefully slid in behind him. Adam tensed for a minute, a confused whimper escaping him at the strange but welcome sensation of the other man's presence behind him, but between them they soothed him and then Elyse slipped in at his front. Adam's response was immediate and promising as he looped his arms around her waist and buried his face in his hair. For a while they simply lay there, their voices soft as they cooed kind words to the other man and slowly Adam relaxed more and more even as his body still shook.

They stayed with him like this for two days, never straying far after the first time they tried to leave and replace themselves with someone else and Adam woke and growled softly at anyone who dare come near the bed that wasn't the doctors or the couple. They'd simply smiled softly, changed clothes and climbed back in, making sure one of them was always with him if the other was up doing something. And at last, a couple days later, Adam came back to his senses, blinking chocolate brown eyes open and staring at the couple in bed with him. The drip was still going so he didn't feel any pain, only the warmth and comfort he was being provided.

Elyse beamed widely. He was so cute, with his face smooth and relaxed and his eyes looking around them with confusion and almost-wonder. Unable to resist she darted forward and placed a chaste kiss on the end of his noise, sharing a wide smile with her husband as pink flushed across his cheeks and he made a soft noise of surprise. Embarrassed, he hid his face in Elyse's shoulder and James chuckled and planted a quick peck in Adam's spikes. Adam made a few more embarrassed noises, but they were more than aware that he hadn't said no and his body was still completely relaxed.

"You know, if you're always this adorable when you get kissed, I don't think I'll ever stop." James teased gently and Adam gave a soft whine of surprise before he peeked out a little. He pulled back a little, his face bright pink, and instead leaned forward and returned the favor, kissing Elyse on the forehead before nuzzling into her shoulder again, face still burning. Elyse squealed softly in excitement even as Adam started up his quiet happy rumble-purr and James pouted at her with wide blue eyes.

"No fair! I wanted a kiss too!" He whined and Elyse giggled as Adam's purr was briefly interrupted in favor of his little laugh before he nuzzled into her shoulder again and resumed his rumbling, smiling as he felt Elyse lean over him gently to kiss her husband quiet.

Adam knew that, in the future, there would be plenty of time to kiss James the way he wanted to, had wanted to since day three of their original journey together, but for now he simply stay where he was, contentedly listening to Elyse and James argue about who was the best kisser until he fell asleep again, something bright and happy settling deep in his chest.


End file.
